


Skeletal Butterflies

by fishinanafro



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Slow Burn, Solangelo endgame, Three Days in the Infirmary (Percy Jackson), a little bit of wound description, hints at percy and nico, i don't baby will at all, it starts with just will and nico but more characters will be added!!, it's my take on the infirmary stay and what comes afterwards, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21748801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishinanafro/pseuds/fishinanafro
Summary: When Will told Nico that he was due for three days in the infirmary, he thought it would be just for cutting bandages and helping organize things. Maybe eat some ambrosia and go back to his own cabin and stay up doing something ridiculous so that he won’t have to sleep and face his nightmares.It wasn’t.It was so much worse.-This takes place in the unspoken time between the end of the Blood of Olympus and the start of Trials of Apollo. It'll be sorta slow burn! My goal is to realistically have Nico and Will get into a relationship!
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 14
Kudos: 97





	1. Three Days

**Author's Note:**

> “Good. So you may be dense, but you’re not an idiot.’  
> ‘How can you even talk to me like that? Don’t you know I can summon zombies and skeletons and –’  
> ‘Right now you couldn’t summon a wishbone without melting into a puddle of darkness, di Angelo,’ Will said. ‘I told you, no more Underworldy stuff, doctor’s orders. You owe me at least three days of rest in the infirmary. Starting now.’  
> Nico felt like a hundred skeletal butterflies were resurrecting in his stomach. ‘Three days? I – I suppose that would be okay.”  
> \- The Blood of Olympus

When Will told Nico that he was due for three days in the infirmary, he thought it would be just for cutting bandages and helping organize things. Maybe eat some ambrosia and go back to his own cabin and stay up doing something ridiculous so that he won’t have to sleep and face his nightmares.

It wasn’t.

It was so much worse.

Nico dragged his hand across his face and sighed as Will rambled on about his stay in the infirmary. “Don’t worry, Nico,” he smiled, “It’ll pass quickly.” He clapped his hands together and helped Nico onto the bed after he washed his hands. He moved the blankets aside, only enforcing that Nico was going to actually be spending his time here.

Nico huffed and swung his legs from his spot on the tall bed, “When can I just go back to my own cabin?” 

Will turned around and started fishing through the cabinets, “After three days...at least. Let’s be real Spooks,” Nico flinched at the use of the terrible nickname, “You’re running on adrenaline and a prayer right now.”

Nico blinked and brought his hand to his upper arm, the werewolf scratches still burned. The crude stitching job Reyna did still barely holding his skin together. Adding onto the small list he had made in his head; he hasn’t eaten a full meal in months, he hasn’t slept well since his time in Tartarus, he has numerous bruises and scratches from the battle that they just had a few hours ago, and lastly the only shirt he owned was this dumb Hawaiian one with the parrots on it. Nico shuddered from an unknown chill and looked up to see Will rifling through the cabinets quickly pulling out bottles and bandages.

Will handed him some long gauze rolled up into a cylinder and a pair of medical scissors, “You can still cut right? We’re running low on everything and since you got two working hands, we’ll use them.”

He made note of how he could tell Will was stressed based on the Texan accent that poked through. Despite the request of doing work, he found the accent cute.

Did he just say cute?

Will Solace was a lot of things. He was infuriating, calming, stubborn, reliable, but he was not cute. Nico shook his head to rid himself of the thought and started cutting. After a couple of seconds, he looked up from the scissors again to see Will drying his hands on a couple of paper towels. His gaze was locked outside of the curtains pulled over to give Nico some privacy while resting. He squinted a little to see if he could tell what Will was focused on outside. He could barely make out his lips moving, most likely a prayer to his father. Nico watched as his expression changed as he turned around to face him again. His smile seemed out of place, almost forced, after seeing the serious look before.

“Ya’know, I almost forgot you need help too. You’re so put together,” He tossed the towels in the bin and pulled out a small tray, “So, officially, what happened to your arm here?” 

Nico looked at what Will was gesturing at; the werewolf scratches. They were oozing a mixture of blood and puss slowly down his arm through the spaces in the stitch work. Pain coursed through down to his hand when he moved his arm a little to get a better look at it. He thought back to how long it had been since he had gotten the wound, but he knew that werewolf scratches tend to reopen and never heal properly. In addition, after coming back he had passed out for three days? At least that’s what Reyna had said. He looked back up at Will, “A werewolf scratched me and Reyna stitched it up. I think it was five days ago.”

The son of Apollo blinked at him a couple of times, “Five days ago?” The tone of his voice was hard to read, but his eyes told him what he really meant. Five days is a long time to have a wound like this and not have it at least professionally looked at. Will put on a pair of gloves, “Okie dokie then, let’s give you some ambrosia and take these stitches out, then we’ll clean it out and make a plan from there.”

He looked up at the back of the blonde’s head as he was organizing the tools he needed on that small tray, “Shouldn’t you be helping out other campers?”

Will shrugged his shoulders absentmindedly. The sound of the metal clattering on metal was rough on his ears, but he ignored it and let out a small sigh, “We only have so many healers at the moment, it’s all case by case.”

Nico felt his head tilt, “Shouldn’t that make it more important for you to be out there then?” 

Since there were only so many able healers around, shouldn’t Will, who is a very capable healer, go and help with the more serious cases? Was his injury that bad? He looked back down at it, the skin around looked yellowy-red with infection, and after sitting down and not moving, he notices a stench coming from it. Even then, he could just pour some disinfecting stuff on it and move along. It would give Nico time to sleep and time for the rush to calm down.

“Like I said, it's all case by case. That's it.” Will frowned as he turned back around, the tray was neatly laid out with the tools and even a small container with a square of ambrosia about the size of a quarter. 

He seemed happy to be changing topics as he pushed the container towards Nico, “I know it’s not a lot, but I’m hoping this will help enough.”

Nico looked down and grabbed the square, “I’m sure it’s fine.” He tasted the bittersweet of dark chocolate and frowned a little. It reminded him of his mother. A flash memory of him as a kid holding onto Bianca’s hand tightly as they ran up to their mom in the middle of the train station. She looked beautiful with her hair down hanging over her shoulders. Her lips were a soft red, and the passing train only wind blew her beauty and her soft scent around passerbys. Quickly giving a shake to his head he cleared away those thoughts. He hated eating ambrosia, he hated the memories that they brought up. Clearing his throat, his mind wandered to what Will’s ambrosia would taste like, but he cleared that away too. He didn’t need to know what Will’s ambrosia tasted like. He didn’t care to know.

He looked down at the wound to see the skin glowing softly. The smell of it had at least gone down. Will leaned forward and nodded, “Okay, time to get those things out.”

The blonde gently grabbed Nico’s arm and put it in a resting position on a small table so that it was a proper angle. The warmth of his hand was enough to make chills slide down Nico’s spine as it mixed with the cold from the disinfectant that he was rubbing around the wound. There was a dull burn, and the closer Will got to it, the worse the throbbing got, but he held himself still. Nico had been through worse. 

Keeping his grip on Nico’s arm, he turned a little to toss the small cloth onto the metal tray away from all of the other materials. As Will’s thumb rubbed the underside of Nico’s wrist he almost instinctively pulled his arm back, but forced through his discomfort to hold still as best as he could. 

Will looked up at Nico while his head tilted a little as he reached for the scissors, “You’re pale as a sheet, did that hurt?”

Nico shook his head, “No. Just didn’t notice how bad it was before.” He lied through his teeth, his gaze traced down to Will’s hand on his forearm. He felt a pulsing heat that radiated up his arm to his chest. Apollo’s children were known to be personal space heaters, but this felt different. 

Will released his arm and Nico forced down his disappointment. He watched as Will grabbed the tweezers and scissors, noting how still his hands were in contrast to when he had just delivered Coach Hedge and Mellie’s baby. 

He was mesmerized for a second, watching as Will grabbed one side of the stitches with the tweezers and then cut through the gap carefully with the scissors. He kept his gaze on his arm, seeing the tension in the stitch release slightly.

“This shouldn’t hurt, but let me know if it does. I can give you something more for the pain.” Will looked up at Nico to make sure the demigod understood. Almost everyone knew Nico had a tendency to suffer through things, even unnecessary things just for the sake of not complaining or seeming weak.

Once Nico nodded in confirmation, he gently pulled the thread out. Nico winced, but not out of pain. It hardly hurt, but the feeling of it being pulled through his skin was uncomfortable. Almost like something was inside of him and was pushing up against his skin. He felt the demigod’s eyes on him so he quickly added, “It didn’t hurt. It’s just weird.”

Will dropped the thread into a small bowl shaped item and shook his head, “Are you lying?” He went back and used the tool to grab onto the next one, “Cause if you’re lying, then I can extend your stay here for two more days.”

Nico looked down at the blonde and gave him a weak scowl, “No, thank you.” The repulsion from the joke was enough to make his face pink. He wanted to spend as little time here as was possible. Freedom to leave camp and get away from all of these people who didn’t care about him was only three days away, and any extension of this date would only make leaving harder. 

The blonde chuckled weakly clearly not noticing the glare, “It was a joke, Neeks,” He cut through another thread, “You said you would tell me if it hurts and you haven’t. I trust you.” He pulled it out slowly and disposed of it in the same dish and continued working, “You just looked so serious, had to make sure you still had your humerus.”

He blinked with his mouth pressed in a firm line, “Was that a pun?”

Will looked up at him and smiled. Nico swore he felt the sun’s rays on his face, “Yeah. You like puns?”

“No.” Nico heard the sound of the metal tools hitting the metal tray, and noticed Will putting it up on the counter.

“That’s truly a shame, since you’ll be here helping. Puns are our main method of communication in the Apollo cabin, so you better start to like them.”

Nico let out a short fake laugh, but cut it off to look at his arm. Without the stitches and with some help from the ambrosia the coloring had gone back to his normal pale olive color. Plus the scent had died down to stale blood which was significantly better. He moved his arm a little and saw fresh blood leak out. Will was quick to hop over and wipe it with some gauze.

“Whoa whoa,” He spoke like he was trying to calm a wild horse, “Gotta finish patching you up before you can move it too much. Don’t want you leaking all over the place.”

Still in a daze, he continued to wiggle his arm a little. It didn’t hurt thanks to the ambrosia, but he could feel that it should hurt. He wiggled his wrist a little, feeling the tingle spread. He looked up to Will rolling his eyes, "Your body is fighting that infection, it's probably making your arm feel weird, but you can't wave it around like that."

He looked back down and clenched his fist, at least that felt somewhat normal. His eyes scanned over to the pillow, that looked really nice. He thought about just dragging Will over so that he could at least lay down while they fix his arm.

Will let some of the pressure off of Nico's arm so that he could get the supplies he needed, digging around on the tray he pulled out a suture kit and wheeled it towards him. "Alright, Spooks! This'll be over in a jiffy!" He looked up from the tray to see Nico swaying back and forth. He was dazed looking and every second or so he would fall down a little then shock himself back upright only to repeat the process.

Letting out a quiet chuckle, he put the kit back down and helped Nico pick his legs up, making sure that the pillow was propped up enough for Nico to be a little more upright. He tossed the covers over him and used another pillow to keep his arm up. This wasn't proper in any medical book, but when his patient was half asleep and falling over he decided that this would be better than trying to keep him awake.

Will pulled out the suture kit and started sewing up Nico's wound.


	2. Second Guessing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico wakes up in the infirmary cleaner than he ever remembers being and counts the hours until he is able to leave. Will is working through his own feelings about the terror of what happened and what feelings he has for Nico, who is set on leaving until he finds something that he might want to stay for.

The dryness of Nico’s mouth made him feel like there was cotton slowly moving down his throat making his body gag. He sat up slowly, trying to create some type of moisture in his mouth as best as he could. The world was a blur of dark shapes like large shadow puppets against the white curtain separating him from the rest of the infirmary. Dragging a tingly hand across his eyes, he tried to wiggle some more feeling into his body. Everything felt heavy and oddly numb. Nico took his time to swing his legs over the side of the bed to try to let some blood flow back down to his toes. The swelling feeling slowly dulled to a tingle that ran up his legs.

“I thought I heard some movement,” Will Solace had pulled the curtain back and smiled down at Nico, his hair like the sun poking through the clouds, “How’d you sleep, spooks?”

Ignoring the terrible nickname, Nico shrugged. He was not ready to talk. Will nodded and pulled his head out from the curtain again. He quickly returned with a bottle of water and a granola bar. He just smiled and handed them to the other.

Nico took the bottle but ignored the granola bar, letting Will just place it on the table next to the bed. He opened it quickly and took a long drink, easily going through half of the bottle. Once he was finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, “So can I leave now?”

Will narrowed his eyes, “You serious?”

He nodded.

“You just slept for two days straight.”

Nico paused, was there something else that needed to be done? This is the best he’s felt in months. He had slept through most of his healing time that was required of him. Besides, the longer he stayed, the more people that would notice his disappearance. He clutched the water bottle tightly in his hands, happy to be getting more feeling back into his body. Trying to ignore the odd, panicky feeling that jumped up into his throat, like the cotton was back. Playing with the lid to the bottle he looked the son of Apollo in the eyes and shrugged again.

Will let out a deep sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, Nico.”

He swallowed. Taking note of the drop of the other more creative nicknames, this one felt more direct. A bubble of spite grew in his stomach, but he tried to choke it down.

“Nothing.” He croaked.

The blonde placed his hands on his hips, “Well, you still owe me one more day. Make it worthwhile.” He spun around and closed the curtains as he walked out of the room.

Nico sat back against the infirmary bed and blinked in confusion. Absentmindedly crushing the water bottle between his hands, he felt more frustration burning inside of his stomach. Did he do something wrong? He put the water down on the table and grabbed the granola bar, quickly unwrapping it and taking a bite. 

He looked down at his legs, expecting them to be bruised and dirty, surprised to find them clean and not covered with the dark fabric of his jeans. Small patches of bandages and creams were covering large expanses of his legs. Ignoring the weird feeling of violation that crawled up his skin, he knew that they would need to get him cleaned up somehow. The hospital gown was a nice touch to make this place feel more authentic, but he missed the tightness of his clothing on his skin. The feeling that helped keep him grounded here for so long.

He shoved the rest of the food into his mouth and continued to look at himself while he still could. His arms weren’t nearly as bony or veiny as they were, the gauze wrapped around his werewolf scratch was clean and nicely done. Although his skin was pale, he could tell that the olive glow would come back soon enough if he went outside a couple of times. He gingerly put one foot onto the ground, feeling the cold tile against his warm skin.

Nico shuddered and put both feet down, reeling at the odd tingles that went up his shins. Shuffling over to a chair tucked in the corner, he found his clothes in a neat little pile. They smelled like dried sage and were significantly softer to the touch. Lightly running his hand over the orange shirt on top he placed it back down and put on the black jeans, looking for his jacket or at least a shirt that wasn’t the camp shirt.

Coming up empty, he held the shirt in his hands again. The familiar logo glared up at him, the faded black letters like an omen. He tossed it back down and left the hospital gown on his top half. He sat back down on the bed and sighed, the least Will could’ve done was leave him something to do. He felt useless just sitting around in this room by himself. 

Continuing to glide his eyes across the room, he found the gauze roll with an example strip cut and the scissors on the table next to him. He picked them up and started cutting them into strips about two feet long.

-

Will ran his hands through his hair as he paced behind the Apollo cabin. The feeling of the hyacinths and wild grass tickled his calves. He pulled on it a little before just dropping his arms back down to his hips. He stopped and looked at his friend who was perched on a stone, her arms were crossed and a pair of sunglasses hung loosely off of her nose.

“Listen, I know you like your cabin and all, but can we go somewhere else? This glare is gonna give me a headache.”

He froze and nodded, “Sorry Lou. Let’s just take a walk, yeah?”

She hopped off and pushed her glasses up onto her forehead, pinning her dark hair back out of her eyes, “Thanks.” She paused for a second and played with her hair, “So, walk me through it again.”

“Okay, so,” He took a deep breath, “I was talking with Kayla outside of his room. We were talking about a new method of healing that should take less energy than normal so we can help get the camp back onto its feet.”

They passed by the fields, completely empty of campers running. The sight made a pang of sadness run up his spine, causing him to pause. He jammed his hands into his pockets and shook his head, he would heal all of the campers in the medic cabin and soon the fields would be filled again.

Lou Ellen continued walking next to him, her hands swung by her sides. She looked over at him as his eyes scanned the empty field, but stayed silent. Slowing down to not leave him behind, she lightly hit the back of her hand against his, hoping to bring him back to the present moment. She had known that Will had a tendency to shoulder all of the weight, and this time away from the cabin -forced by the other healers- while good for him to save his strength only made his mind wander. Knowing better than to ask him how much sleep he’s been getting, or even if he had eaten a full meal in the last week, she just stayed silent.

Will cleared his throat, “Oh, yeah.” He ran his hand through his hair and pulled his head back to the pathway, “We heard him moving, and one of the campers started to have troubles so Kayla ran off to help them, and they are okay. She thinks it was a panic attack. Although we’ve been preparing for this though, and have been working with Pollux a lot. We’re hoping we can come up with a remedy that’s not too taxing, although that’ll be kinda hard just based on the sheer number and it’ll be a month at least before we see most effects. So we have a lot of work to do.”

He paused and looked over to see Lou Ellen nodding her head. She fought the urge to pull her glasses back down over her eyes. She knew that the sunglasses would create a subconscious separation between them, and she needed him to be honest and open. Offering him a small smile she nodded for him to continue on.

“I’ve been going on a lot of tangents today, sorry. I had a point to this,” He pulled his hands from his pockets, “I think my thoughts are a little scattered right now.”

“It’s okay. I like to hear you think out loud.”

He chuckled, the tips of his ears turned pink, “You’re psychoanalyzing me now?” 

She smiled, “Maybe a little. Someone needs to be the doctor for you.”

Will looked back out into the field, “Anyways. Nico woke up and the first thing he asked was to leave. Could you believe that?”

Lou Ellen tilted her head, “Wow.” Her brows were drawn together in confusion, “I assumed you were more upset at the state of the camp.”

“No, no. I am. it’s just,” He gestured with his hands, “I don’t know? It really bothered me.”

“Now, is that that Southern hospitality coming up? Did he not thank you like a proper Southern boy should?”

Will rolled his eyes and sighed, “No, it’s not that.”

Lou Ellen tapped her chin, “Are you upset that he wants to leave?”

He stopped walking and kicked a rock with his foot. The bottom of his flip-flop scraped against the dirt path, “I guess. I know his plans for once this is all over are to leave camp. I don’t want him to go.”

“Then that’s it,” She spun around, “Don’t go overthinking things, Solace. You like the guy.”

“Hold on there,” He pointed his finger at her, “You can’t go around making such wild accusations.”

Lou Ellen cocked her head, “What? I just said you like him, although you could like-like him. I meant like, you like him so you want him to stay.” 

Will’s cheeks flushed red, “Maybe so.”

“Ooohhh so you got a thing for bad boys, huh?”

He pushed her shoulder, “He is far from a ‘bad boy’ don’t go stereotyping him like that. Nico is a lot more nerdy than you think.”

“Hmm, maybe I was right. You have a crush on him?”

Will shrugged, despite his casual appearance his face was bright red, “I could.”

She rolled her eyes, “Don’t play coy with me, Solace. It’s okay for you to like him.”

“I have a lot of admiration for him,” He gestured with his hands, “Which could be from me having a crush on him since like fifth grade or could be from anything really. He’s super brave and intelligent. His focus in battle is immaculate. And Percy told me that back when he was younger he used to be super into mythomagic. Plus he’s good with the younger campers, despite not thinking so. I think he’s honestly just scared to get close to someone, which I understand.”

Lou Ellen smiled, “That’s sweet. You should tell him.”

“That’s it. That’s the craziest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

She put up her hands, “You heard him, he plans on leaving. Don’t let him walk out without letting him know. Besides, maybe he’ll stay in camp just for you.”

He waved his hand as they continued walking again, “I’ll consider it.”

Lou Ellen clapped her hands and looped her arm around his, “Perfect! Now let’s go! It’s snack time!”

-

Nico looked at the pile of gauze, he had cut through three whole rolls, although some had already been taken to treat campers. He put down the scissors feeling the tightness in his fingers from holding onto them too tightly.

He kicked his legs again, feeling the boredom creep up again. Now that something wasn’t actively giving himself something to do, he took off the hospital gown and decided that he could go back to his cabin and change in a day. Slipping the orange t-shirt over his head. He was thankful that there weren’t mirrors in the infirmary.

Getting back onto his feet, he decided a small walk around the area would be good for him and hopefully wouldn’t land him in hot water with Will. He looked around for his shoes and slipped them over his feet ignoring the socks off to the side.

Pulling back the curtain he was immediately met with the rows and rows of beds and curtained off sections. He assumed they were in the makeshift building that he noticed being built next to the Big House. It was better than the basement and the Apollo cabin. Taking a deep breath, he shuffled out of the room and down the center trying his best to disappear into the medics and others who were lending hands. They moved quickly, but a sense of worry wafted off of them. Arms filled with supplies they stopped at the bunks with children and teens lying on beds, either asleep or unconscious.

He could feel the death lingering. It wasn’t all over, but it hung in the corners of the room. Not obvious, but still enough that he could feel it. Nico shook his head, the death probably followed him. He could be endangering every camper here because of his family name and it seemed like Will didn’t care. Taking a small step, Nico focused on his goal and continued moving.

As he walked, his eyes would peer between the cracks in the curtains. Seeing nothing expect for white, he noticed that there was a curtain that pulled back. A young girl sat on the bed, she looked to be around 10. Her right arm and left leg were wrapped in thick white casts. She looked at Nico and waved with her cast arm. Her hair in two high black pigtails bounced as she waved. A flicker of pain crashed over her face, but she kept the smile pasted on. 

He quickly looked away and walked faster out of the infirmary.

The warmth of the sunlight made his body cave in on itself. He closed his eyes and tried to find the nearest patch of shade. He walked evenly, hoping to not be spotted and leaned against a tree. He let out a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.

Two sets of footsteps were walking toward the cabin, but stopped on the other side of the tree. He could hear crying. Staying still he froze, hoping they wouldn’t hear him. The rough bark scratched his back, but he held still pushing himself more and more into it.

“I-I know!” He heard a young boy cry, “It’s just, not fair.” 

“It’s not fair,” An older voice agreed. She sounded young, but there was a sharp edge of maturity to her voice.

Nico heard the sound of sobs and wished he could just disappear into the scratchy bark here. He wanted out.

“Honey,” The older voice cooed, “I know you’re sad, but we’re going to go see Marcella. She’s doing so much better. We gotta remember to be strong for her, right? Unless you want to go. That’s okay. I can take you back.”

There was another pause, save for the sound of tears.

The boy spoke up, “No. I want to see her. But,” He let out a shuddering breath, “I didn’t get to say goodbye to Nikki.”

He heard rustling and assumed that she picked him up, “When we will do a ceremony for her I will give you extra time to speak to her okay? And you can help me pick out the decorations. What kind of flowers did your sister like?”

Nico felt his breath pick up. 

“Daisies.” The boy sniffled out.

“Well, once we go see Marcella, let’s go find the best place to get daisies so that we can have them for Nikki.”

He heard the sound of the footsteps fading away towards the infirmary. Feeling his legs turn to gelatin, Nico slid down the rough bark of the tree and landed on the floor. Ignoring the burning itchy pain that ran down his spine. He looked down at his hands. They were shaky and clammy.

The idea that the camp would have to do funeral ceremonies for everyone who passed away hadn’t even crossed his mind. He was so focused on getting better and out. Nico gripped his knees tightly and cursed at himself. He was the son of Hades. He had to make sure the fallen heroes got the proper services. It was his birthright.

“Nico?”

He looked up seeing Will adjusting the stethoscope around his neck. Will’s face was bent in confusion, his eye brows knitting together under the cover of his bangs. Nico stood up, barely trusting his legs. They locked into place and he was thankful to not be wavering in front of him, again.

“I was just about to head back inside,” Nico lied, “I wanted to get some fresh air. Figured you wouldn’t mind.” 

At least that was the truth.

Will blinked twice, “Uh yeah no. I don’t. Fresh air and sunshine is good for you. It’ll keep you grounded here.”

Nico kicked a tree root with his foot, “Well inside I go.”

He stuck his arm out as Nico started to walk back, “Wait. Are you okay, Nico?”

The brunette paused and kept his eyes on the ground. More curious as to why Will was asking, he reached up and touched his cheek to find it wet with tears. Nico wiped his face furiously, “Yeah I’m fine. I slipped down the tree and scratched my back.”

Will bit his tongue, “Oh.” He paused for a second, planning his next sentence carefully, “I can give you some ointment for that. Let’s get you back inside.”

Nico felt his stomach drop when he felt Will’s warm grip on his arm again. Holding himself from leaning on the blonde he stumbled awkwardly over the ground. He felt the warmth radiating from Will’s body and it was almost stronger than the sun beating down on them. Feeling the war in his brain he jumped the line between Will being too close and not close enough, and he started to feel sick.

“You can lean on me, spooks,” Will chuckled, “I know you’re strong, but you haven’t eaten in awhile and I can feel you’re pretty weak.”

Despite the nagging in his brain to push himself away from the son of Apollo, Nico let himself lean into Will’s arm as they walked back into the infirmary.


End file.
